Hits, Runs, Errors

On his first 1945 trip to the plate, Bill Nicholson of the Chicago Cubs planted a fat pitch over the 368-ft. marker in right center field. With 33 home runs and 122 runs-batted-in, he was the game's leading slugger last year, and he had every intention of repeating.

So did the St. Louis Browns. By licking the Detroit Tigers, 7-to-1, they won their opening game for the ninth straight year. But when the Browns lost their next five games, dopesters began calling the Yankees shoo-ins. They might be, at that--but any judgments based on the first week's hurly-burly might live to be regretted.

The Managers. In the first week's scramble the managers took the worst beating. Cleveland's Lou Boudreau opened on a low note by getting picked off third base with the ancient hidden-ball trick. Joe Cronin of the Red Sox broke his ankle sliding into second. Leo Durocher of Brooklyn, who had loudly threatened to play second base for the first 15 games, gave up with sore shins after a game and a half (he was still juggling his batting order right & left--five times in five days).

On the other hand, Mel Ott, whose Giants banged their way into the National League lead, was feeling no pain. Every time he hit a home run, drove in a run (three so far), drew a walk (eleven in seven games), or did most anything, he broke his own league record. The Yankees' five-game spurt which made them the team to beat in the American League--despite the Chicago White Sox's five straight wins--did not even raise a smile on Joe McCarthy's square jaw. Said poker-faced Joe: "My team's better than last year. We'll win the pennant."

The Players. The veterans with the know-how got off to a better start than the recruits. Last year's pitching stars picked up where they left off. Cincinnati's Ed Heusser showed off his lowest earned-run average (2.38) in the National League by shutting out Pittsburgh; Detroit's Dizzy Trout won twice in six days, proving that his right arm was not burned out from overwork (he labored 352 innings last year, won 27 games); Trout's pitching partner, Lefty Hal Newhouser, lost-his first, came right back to beat Cleveland, 3-to-2 in 11 innings.

None of the 18 rookies who made their debuts grabbed any headlines. One of the two best publicized, one-armed Pete Gray of the Browns, scratched a single in his first game, then hurt his shoulder diving for a line drive. The other was switch-hitting, ex-serviceman Al Schoendienst, who once swung the meanest bat in the International League (despite almost total blindness in one eye); he rapped a triple off the right field wall in the opener, then helped lose the game for the St. Louis Cardinals with a two-base error.

The Coopers. The Cardinals had more than their rookie outfielder to worry about. Their famed Cooper brothers--Pitcher Mort and Catcher Walker--went on a rampage when they found that Shortstop Marty Marion had been promised a raise over the club's $12,000 ceiling salary, threatened to quit unless their ante was upped from $12,000 to $15,000. The row was no morale booster for the Cards, whose team spirit had been a major factor in their three straight pennants.

The day after the case was put up to the Commissioner's Office, Walker Cooper received an April 30 induction notice. His loss, as well as I-A Outfielder Johnny Hopp's, would lose the Cards their odds-on 4-to-5 position in the race.

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